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THE 



M. E. CHURCH AND SLAYERY, 



AS D3SCRIBED BY 



REVS. H. MATTISON, W. HOSMER, E. BOY/EN, D. D., 
D. DE VINNE, AND J. D. LONG, 



A BIBLE VIEW OF THE WHOLE SUBJECT. 



BY EEV. JOHN P. BETKER. 



S -A. 3^/n XJ B Ij Iu e e 

1859. 






-^^^y. 



T 



THE 

E. CHURCH AND SLAVERY. 



The Anti-slavery men in the M. E. Church, occupy a very 
remarkable position at this time. A position which Chris- 
tian men cannot occupy and be consistent, if all they say 
of their Church in her relation to slavery be correct. 
Their position cannot be defended from the word of God. 
Nay, rather the word of God plainly condems it. 

Contemplating the pictures which they themselves have 
drawn of the M. E. Church, in her complicity with slavery, 
no one can, on any scriptural ground, account for these 
men remaining in her communion another day. In the 
entire absence of any more favorable light in which to 
estimate their motives, we are driven to the unpleasant 
conclusion, that they are governed more by the spirit of 
sectarianism and love of party in their present operations, 
than they are by the Spirit of Truth or the Bible. I say 
not this to give offence. I would not judge these brethren 
harshly. They, however, have laid themselves liable to 
such insinuations, or to the eqaallj" discreditable one, that 
the directions given in the Bible in relation to the moral 
ground they occupy as Christian men, is wholly set aside 
by them ; and that they have adopted instead thereof, the 
tricks and traps of political parties as promising greater, 
and more permanent success than can be hoped for by pur- 
suing the course pointed out in the word of God. Nothing 
can be plainer than the fact that their position finds no 



justification in the word of God. Such a position, however 
specious, is opposed to sound morality, and must, in the end, 
work evil to all concerned. 

In order that this matter may be viewed in its proper 
light, I shall, present the picture these men have given 
of the M. E. Church in her connection with Slavery ; 
and compare the picture thus drawn, with the scripture 
representation of a true and false church. 

What do these men say of the M. E. Church in her 
relation to Slavery ? 

The Black River Conference of the M. E. Church, at its 
last session, passed several resolutions in regard to the 
connection of their Church with Slavery. The preamble 
and 1st resolution thus read : — 

" Whereas, We are most painfully impressed with a 
sense of the enormity and guilt of slavery as it exists in 
these United States, and blush with shame that in the after- 
noon of the nineteenth century, the Church of God, bears 
upon her otherwise beautiful visage the plague-spot of 
slavery, and embraces in her communion slave-holding 
members, officiaries and ministers ; 

And Whereas, We believe slave-holding to be a grievous 
sin against Almighty God, a cruel unmitigated outrage 
against the enslaved, and in conflict with all that is sacred 
in divinity and with all that is dear to humanity : there- 
fore, 

Resolved, 1st, That our complicity with this vile abomina- 
tion places us in the most fearful attitude before the God of holi- 
ness and justice, and our tamness in the cause of human 
freedom, and slowness to speak for the dumb, call for the 
deepest humiliation and the most genuine, hearty repent- 
ance before God." 

This language describes fully the corrupt position of the 
M, E. Church, in her complicity with the vile abominations 
of Slavery ; but it is not true of the Church of God that 
she is thus corrupted. The true Church of God, is " the 



salt of the earth ; " but a church which has become morally 
corrupt, and shown herself to be false to her holy mission 
on earth, by " embracing in her communion — a grievous sin 
against Almighty God, (and) a cruel, unmitigated outrage 
against the enslaved" millions of this land, is thus described 
in Christ's own words : " If the salt have lost its sovour, 
wherewith shall it be salted ? it is thenceforth good for 
XOTHING, BUT TO BE CAST OUT, and to be trodden under foot 
of men." Mat. v. 13. 

The members of the B. R. Conference, in their zeal to 
prevent secession from their Church, whose wretched cor- 
ruption causes even them " to blush with shame," neverthe- 
less assume to call her " the Church of God !" But while 
this assumption may for the time meet the demands of par- 
tizans, by preventing secession, it finds no support whatever 
in the word of God. No Ecclesiastical body that "em- 
braces in its communion slave-holding members, ojQ&ciaries 
and ministers," can be scripturally called the Church of 
God; and without the sanction of Scripture, every such 
claim must be false. 



The Rev. D. De Vinne, of the New York East Confer- 
ence of the M. E. Chm-ch, in a pamphlet entitled The M. 
E. Church and Slavery, thus speaks of her present position : 

" More than thirty years ago, we spent the whole of the real 
anti-slavery capital our venerated fathers had left us. And 
at present, notwithstanding our ever, and anon repetition 
of anti-slaveryism, the tendency and influence of our Church 
is for Slavery ; for its quiet, peaceful continuance in the 
Church under present circumstances, — the veriest traders 
IN the souls and bodies of men can desire nothing more 
THAN THIS." Page 87. 



In his introduction, he uses this language : 

" We deplore the present position of our Church ; and 
in Tiew of all the ground, having traveled fifteen thousand 
miles in slave-holding States, and having conversed freely 
with Methodist slaves and slave-holders, we must here 
record our solemn and religious testimony, that, in om." 
opinion, the injlueiice of the M. E. Church, as administered 
for the last thirty years, has been unfavorabk to the emancipa- 
tion of Slavery, either in our Church, or in our country:' 

Such a Church, to say the least of it, is " salt that has 
lost its savor, and it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to 
be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men." 

According to De Vinne, " the veriest traders in the 
bodies and souls of men, can desire nothing more" than the 
present position of the M. E. Church. Christian men have 
no right, or business to remain in a church that thus makes 
herself the ally of the basest of men-thieves ! " The law is 
not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and dis- 
obedient — FOR MEN-STEALERS — and auy other thing that is 
contrary to sound doctrine." 1 Tim. i. 9, 10. 



Eev. Wm. Hosmer, Editor of the JYorthern Independent, 
in the No. for June 9th, thus speaks of the M. E. Church : 

" It is sad that we have become apostates to freedom, — 
the toleration among us of a compromising, apologizing, 
and merely formal opposition to the abomination of Slavery, 
has depraved the nation. In the M. E. Church, — it is 
scarcely better." — " The fathers of Methodism were aboli- 
tionists of the staunchest kind ; and whatever rules or 
regulations we have in the Discipline against this sin, have 
come down to us from them, — we not only have added 
nothing, but have suffered the rules which they made to 
become a dead letter." — " The passing by of the Levite on 
the other side, told the story of his morals, and the icant of 
earnest, instant, unyielding devotion to the bondman, tells 



more explicitly than words could do, the price loe put 
upon liberty, and the estiuiate ice form of the wrong done 
to the innocent man who is converted into a chattel. 
While we are thus ambiguous, touching this boundless rob- 
bery, A PROFESSION OF CHRISTIANITY AVAILS US NOTHING. 

No skill, no solemnity, no earnestness, no profession, can 
possibly unite sin and holiness, slavery and religion." 

The M. E. Church and Slavery are united, and therefore 
she is not the embodiment of the religion of Christ ; in 
other words she is not a Church of Christ, " her profession 
•»f Christianity avails nothing;" her claim must be false. 
.'t is just as reasonable to suppose that a professor of reli' 
gion who has become an apostate, is still a genuine Chris- 
tian, as to suppose that a church which becomes apostate 
to the common rights of humanity, is still a Church of 
Christ. 



j Rev. J. D. Long, of the Philadelphia Conference of the 
M. E. Church, th-us describes the M. E. Church in his 
work, entitled, Pictures of Slavery. After having shown 
the high anti-slavery ground occupied by the fathers of 
Methodism, he says : 

" TTe have painfully to admit that the Church did after' 
wards /a// from her noble and JS'tw Testament position on the 
subject of Slavery ; and many of those fathers tried to 
undo li-ith their own hands, what they had so nobly accom- 
plished. So that in 1808, was stricken out of the Disci- 
pline, all tliat related to private members — private members 
could hold for life, their fellow-creatures, in bondage — give 
them away to their children during their life time — and 
leave them in perpetual slavery. So the whole ground was 
in effect conceded to Slavery. What a fearful history the M. 
E. Cluirch has to read to the world by this concession 1 

A HISTORY WRITTEN WITH THE BLOOD AND TEARS OF OP- 
PRESSED thousands! Private members holding slaves. 



soon involved class-leaders, exhorters, local preachers, and 
traveling preachers, and finally debauched the moral sentiment 
of the whole Church." Pictures, p. 30, 31. 

A church, vrhose " history is -written in the blood and 
tears of oppressed thousands," — whose " whole moral sen- 
timent has become debauclied," ceases at once to be the 
Church of Christ, whatever may have been her character 
before she became tlius polluted. Of such a church, it may 
be said in the language of Jeremiah : " In thy skirts is found 
the blood of the souls of the poor innocents ; I have not 
found it by secret search, but upon all these. Behold I 
will plead with thee because thou sayest. I have not sinned. 
Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way? 
The Lord hath rejected thy confidences, and thou t^halt not 
prosper in them." (Jer. ii. 34, 37.) " Come out of her 
my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that 
ye receive not of her plagues." Rev. xviii. 4. 

On pages 34, 35, he thus graphically portrays the present 
position of the M. E. Church : 

" We have a pro-slavery Discipline, which allows our private 
members in Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia to hold 
for gain, to give away, and transmit by will to their heirs, 
as chattels personal, souls for "xhom Christ died. The slave 
can be sold for their debts at any time. They can give 
them away to relatives, who can sell tliera to the negro- 
buyers at pleasure ; and do all this according to the discipline 
of the Church ; and they cannot be expelled for it." 

A church whose members can tlius traffic in the souls for 
whom Christ died, "and do. this according to the Discipline 
of the Church," cannot be the Church of Christ. The idea 
is preposterous that Christ would own a Church as his 
whose very Discipline ignores the great purposes of his 
mission to our earth. That mission he thus describes, " The 
Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me 



to preach the Gospel to the pow, he hath sent me to heal the 
broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and re- 
covering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that 
ARE BRUISED." Luke \\. 18. 

Bro. Long goes on farther to say : 

" I make bold to declare that there are more slaves 
owned nov: by members of the M. E. Church tliau in 1845. 
' Why you astonish me I' Says one, ' I tliought that anti- 
slavery principles were on the increase, since the division 
of the Church.' But the fact is, our members don't care 
one cent how much the preachers slap each other and the 
bishops about holding slaves ; nor how much they talk 
about slavery in the abstract and advocate colonization, if 
they but abuse abolitionists without defining the term, and 
never hint, even in private conversation, that it is a sin in 
private members to hold slaves, and get rich upon their 
labor. When you strike that key-note, you will find out 
that there is very little difference between the laity of the M. 
E. Church North and the- laity of the 21. E. Church 
South, IJV THEORY OR PRACTICE OJY THE SUB- 
JECT OF SLAVERY. Do the members of the Church 
South hold slaves for life? So do oiiis. Do their slaves 
live in promiscuous intercourse ? So do ours." 

On page 288, he says further on this point : 

" The M. E. Church South charge the laity of our 
Church with mercenary slave-holding ; and, as an honest 
man, I must say that the charge is true to tlie very letter." 

On page 49, he says : 

" I cannot speak for the Baltimore Conference, though 
it is certain it has a vastly larger slave-holding territory 
than the Philadelphia Conference. If that Conference has 
jurisdiction over one thousand slave-holders, and these own 
3000 slaves, then ice have 6000 slaves oivned by 2000 members 
of the M. E. Church, ALL sheltered by the Discipline op 
OUR Church." 

Here are facts and figures from an accredited minister 
of the M. E. Church, whicli it would be well for our peo- 
ple to remember. They fully corroborate the charges we 



10 

have made against the M. E. Church for years past. A 
Church, whose Discipline shelters her members in this 
wholesale bartering in the God-given rights of our fellow- 
beings, cannot be the Church of God ! The following- 
Scriptures more properly apply to such a Church : 

" Wo unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, (Pro- 
slavery Disciplines for instance,) and that write grievous- 
ness which they have prescribed ; to turn aside the needy 
from judgment, and take away the right of the poor of my 
people, that widows may be their pre}^, and that they may 
rob the fatherless. And what will ye do in the day of visita- 
tion, and in the desolation which shall come from far ? To 
whom will ye flee for help ? And where will ye leave 
your glory?'' Isaiah x. 1-3. "Hear ye this, 0, ye that 
swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the laud 
to fail. That buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair 
of shoes ; the Lord hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob, 
surely I icill never forget any of their works^ Amos viii. 4-7. 

" I will be a swift witness against those that oppress the 
hireling in his v^ages, the widow and the fatherless, and that 
turn (mde the stranger from his right and fear not me, saith 
the Lord of liosts." Mat. iii. 5, 

" As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of 
deceit : therefore they are become great, and waxen rich. 
They are waxen fat, they shine : yea, they over-pass tlie 
deeds of the wicked ; they judge not the cause, the cause 
of the fatherless, yet they prosper ; and the right of the 
needy do Ihey not judge. Shall I not visit for these things ? 
saith tlie Lord ; shall not my soul be avenged on such a 
nation ?" Jer. v. 27-29. " Wo unto you, scribes and 
pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye devour widows' houses, and 
for a pretence make long prayer ; therefore ye shall receive 
the gieater damnation. Wo unto you, scribes and pliarisees, 
hypocrites ! lor ye pay tithe of mint, and anise, and cum- 
min, and have omitted the weighter matters of the law. 
judgment, mercy and faith : these ouglit ye to have done, 
and not leave the other undone. Ye blind guides, wliich 
strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. Wo unto you. 
scribes and pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye are like unto 



li 

wliited scpiilclires, which indeed appear beautiful outward, 
but are within full of dead men's bones, and • all unclean- 
ness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto 
men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity." 
Math, xxiii. 

These are a few of the dreadful words God has spoken 
against those associations that " shelter '' " the theory and 
practice " of the '" sum of all villainies " among them. 
These dreadful words cannot apply to tlie true Church of 
God. Therefore, those clmrches to whom they do apply 
are not the true churches of Jesus Christ. They properly 
apply to the M. E. Church, if Rev. J. J). Long has cor- 
rectly portrayed her present position on the slavery ques- 
tion, and therefore her claim to be a Church of Christ is 
inadmissible. 

" Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye sep. 
urate said the Lord." 2 Cor. vi. 17, 



The Rev. H, Mattison, in his Impending Crms, thus 
describes and characterizes the pro-slavery position of the 
M. E, Church : 

" In the M. E. Church proper, we have now some 15,000 
slave-holders, holding 100,000 slaves; with slave-holding 
leaders, stewards, trustees, and local preachers, by hua* 
dreds, if not by thousands. It has also entered the trav- 
eling ministry, and slave-holders are openly tolerated in 
several of the Conferences, xoitkoiit the slightest disappraha-' 
Hon. Members of our churches in New Yore, and Phila- 
iDELPHiA, if not in Central New York, own slaves in 
Maryland and Virglnia." Page 117. 

" We are now as a Church more deeply and a'iminally in- 
volved in slnve-holdin fr than at any firrmcr period of our histo- 
ry ^ Page 41. " We have nov/ from ten to twenty 
THotrsAND sLAVB-HOLDEas IN otTR CHtjRcH ; amons* v^horA 



12 

are hundreds of leaders, stewards, and local preachers, deacons 

and elders, who own, raise, buy and sell slaves, as suits 
their couvenience and interest, and with utter impunity. 
There cannot be less than one hundred thousand 
slaves now owned, and held in bondage by Methodists, 
IN the Northern portion of the original Methodist 
Episcopal ChurcHj — and no efforts are made on the part of 
the executive authorities of the Church to stay this incoming 
tide of sin and corruption. Now if any man can look these 
facts in the face, and not say that we are iniiuitely worse 
off, so far as connection with slavery is concerned, than we 
were before the division of 1844, we envy him not his 
knowledge, or judgment, or candor. Much as it may 
mortify our denominational pride, we may better own the 
wliolo truth, and by God's help seek to recover ourselves 
out of the snare of the devil, than to conceal, or refuse to 
look at the truth, till it is too late to retrieve our lost 
character, and moral power. So far as this subject is con- 
cerned, the M. E. Church in America is a fallen 
CHURCH. Bating what genuine anti-slavery principle there 
is in the Northern Conferences, from the crov^^n of the head 
to the soles of the feet, there is no soundness in us, but 
wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores ; that have not 
been bound up, neither mollified with ointment. And our 
condition in this respect is growing worse and worse, every 
year, and every day." Pages 84, 85. 

" Thus we stand to this day as a denomination, AMONG 

THE ABETTORS AND UPHOLDERS OP SLAVERY." Page 109. 

No one can compare this description Bra. Mattison gives 
of the M. E. Church, with the Bi'blc description of the 
Church of God, and not be struck with the faci tliat her 
claim to be the Church of God finds no support whatever 
in the Bible. As proof of the truth of this statement, in- 
stance the following points of comparison : 

1st. Bro. Mattison says of the connection of the M. E. 
Church with the " sum of all villainies," " From the crown 
of the head to the soles of tlie feet there is no soundness in 
lis." Compare this picture by the one drawn by St. Paul 



IB 

of the Church of Christ. " Christ also loved the Church, 
and gave himself for it, that he might present it to himself 
a glorious church, not having spot or ivrinkle, OR any such 
THING ; but that it should be holy and without blemish." 
Ephes. V. 25-27. The church which Paul describes is 
" without blemish." The church which Mattison describes 
has "no soundness in" her. The church, therefore, that 
Mattison describes is not the Church of Christ. 

2d. Bro. Mattison says of the corrupt state of the M. E, 
Church, in her connection with slavery : " Our condition 
in this respect is grovdng worse and worse, every year, and 
every day." St. Paul, describing " the household of God," 
says it is " built upon the foundation of the apostles and 
prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone, 
in whom all the building fitly framed together, groweth 
unto a holy temple in the Lord." Ephes. ii. 19, 21. The 
church which Paul describes " groweth unto a holy temple" 
The church which Mattison describes, is " growing worse 
and worse" in the pollutions of slavery. Mattison's church, 
therefore, is not the church that Paul describes ; and con- 
sequently is not the Church of Christ. 

3d. Bro. Mattison says of the M. E. Church : " We 
stand this day as a denomination araong the abettors and 
upholders of slavery ^ St. Paul says, " The church of 
the living God {is) the pillar and ground of truth.'''' 
1 Tim iii. 15. This remarkable diiference between the 
church which Paul describes and the one Mattison des- 
cribes, renders the claim of the latter, to be the church that 
Paul speaks of, absurd and ridiculous. 

4th. Bro. Mattison represents the M. E. Church as being 
in the " snare of tJie devil /" and on page 85, (see Crisis) 
speaking of the utter pro-slaveryism of the M. E. Church 
South, he says, " in the Northern portion we are hastening 



14 

on to the same consicmmation, so far as our slave territory 
is concern 'd, as fast as time^ and the ])o%i)ers of darhness 
can hurry xis to ru(nP Our Lord Jesus Christ tlius 
speaks of his own church : " Upon this rock I will build 
my church, and the gates of hell (the powers of darkness) 
shall not prevail a.gainst it" Mat. xvi. 18. 

Mattison's church is " in the snare of the devil, — and 
the powers of darhness' are hurrying her to ruin," and 
consequently the gates of hell have prevailed against 
his church ; therefore, his church is not the Church of 
Christ, for the gates of hell shall not prevail against the 
Church of Christ. " And unto the angel of the church in 
Smyrna, write : these things saith the first and the last — 
I know thy works, and tribulations, and poverty, (but thou 
art rich,) and I Icnovj the hlasphemy of them which say 
they are Jews, and are not, hut are the synagogue of 
Satan." Eev. ii. 8, 9. 

" What concord hath Christ with Belial ? or what part 
hath he that believeth with an infidel ? And what agree- 
ment hath the temple of God with idols? — Wherefore, 
come out from among them and be ye separate saith the 
Lord." 2 Cor. vi. 15-17. 



Slias Bowe2^, D, D., a member of the Oneida Confer- 
ence < f the M. E. Church, has recently written a book; 
entitled Slavery in the Jf. £!. Church, From this work 
I will quote a few faithfully drawn pictures of the M. E. 
Church, in her complicity with " the smn of all villainies.'- 
On the 4th page of his introduction^ he thus speaks \ 

'•Tmdffion of slavery \^'hkh enteied into the Metho- 
dist societiee at an early day, and which our fathers crim^ 



i5 

inally failed to cast out of the church at tlie time of her 
organization, has at length become installed over us as the 
Genius loci of our institutions and government ; and all 
our administrations and movements are 7iovj subject to the 
domineering surveillance of this ruthless divinity." 

Let the reader compare this state of things in the M, E. 
Clnirch, with the following view of the true Church of 
Christ given by St. Paul : " The God of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, the Father of glor}', hath put all things under his 
feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church, 
which is his boJv." Ephes. i. 17, 22, 23, 

" The demon of slavery " is the presiding divinity of Dr, 
Bowen's church ; but the Lord Jesus Christ is the presid- 
ing Divinity of the church which St. Paul speaks of, there- 
fore. Dr. Bowen's church is not a Church of Christ, 
Christ, and the " demon of slavery" cannot be presiding 
divinities in the same church, for " Avhat concord hath 
Christ with Belial ?" (2 Cor. vi.) Where may we look 
for "the synagogue of Satan" if not in tke M, E. Church, 
whose presiding genius is the " demon of slavery ?" 

Again, the Dr. says : 

" For some time previous to the last General Conference, 
the church had been deeply convinced of the great evil of 
slavery. But since that time, like an awakened sinner, 
who has shaken olf his convictions, by resisting the injflu- 
ences of the Spirit, she has lost all sense of the guilt of 
holding her fellow-creatures in bondage, and relapsed into 
a state of profoundest apathy. She has taken the viper 
into her iosovi, and according to the teachings of the 'est 
General Conference^ and most of our editors^ it would be 
a violation of the constitution of the church to cast it out! 
And yet she refuses to edier the constitution P'' ' Pao'cs 

n-13. 

A church whose constitution would be violated if slavery, 
"' the vilest sin that ever saw the Sun," was cast out of hei* 



bosom, cannot possibly be the Church of Christ, A section 
of the constitution of the true Church of Christ thus reads, 
" I wrote unto you in an epistle, not to company with for- 
nicators ; yet not altogether the fornicators of this world, 
or with the covetous, or EXTORTIONERS, or with idol- 
aters, for then must ye needs go out of the world. But 
now I hare written unto you not to keep company, if any 
man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or COVE- 
TOUS, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, OR AN 
EXTORTIONER, with such an one no not to eat." 1 Cor. 
T. 9, 11. "I would not that ye should have fellowship 
with devils." 1 Cor. x. 20. The constitution of Christ's 
true church would be violated if " the sum of all villainies" 
were admitted to her fellowship ; but the constitution of 
the M. E. Church admits "the sum of all villainies" to her 
very bosom ; nay, she would violate her constitution were 
she to cast this viper out of her bosom ! Christ's Church, 
and the M. E. Church, therefore, are not identical, for they 
have not the same head, nor the same constitution. For if 
Dr. BowEN has justly represented the M. E. Church, " the 
demon of slavery is the genius loci of her institutions and 
government," and a pro-slavery Discipline is her constitu- 
tion. While Jesus Christ is the head, and the word of 
God is the constitution of the Church of Christ. 

I will now give Dr. Bowen's definition of Slavery, to- 
gether with extracts from his l)ook showing the pro-slavery 
character of the M. E. Church. The' Dr. thus expresses 
himself in regard to slavery : 

'• If we have spoken of the enormous sin of Slavery in 
strong and decided terms, or denounced it as ct crime of 
the deepest die — an exhibition of deijixivity which it loere 
shocking to contemplate in the most uncimlized and bar- 
barous state of society even-. — we ask no man's pardon. 
Our conceptions of the unp)a7xdleled wickedness oftSlavery., 



17 

and the abhorrence ■with which we regard an evil so gi- 
gantic and appalling in its character, have utterly failed, 
through the feebleness of language, to manifest their full 
strength and vigor, or to give adequate expression of their 
intensity. When Wesley said of Slavery, ' it is the sum of 
all villainies,' he fell heloio tlie reality. It is plus all 
THAT IN ITS MILDEST FOllM ; and all the Buchanans 
and Taneys this side of hell can make nothing less of it. 
We might look in vain for the entire aggregation, or ah- 
solute etnhodiment of crimes of all sorts and descriptions 
in any other single institution on earth. The annals of 
the darkest period of the dark ages, when slave-holding 
was prevalent in most parts of the world, and Rome and 
Romanism stood pre-eminent in the history of crime i 
even the annals of that period furnish no jparalltl in 
wickedness and cruelty to American Sla.very P Pages 
120, 121. 

Now how does the M. E. Church stand in relation to 
" tliis unparalleled wickendess," " this aggregation of all 
sorts and descriptions of- crimes ?" The Doctor furnishes 
us with a very plain and distinct answer to this inquiry. 
Here it is : 

"The institution of Slavery h^mg iiracticall/y sustained 
by her, and the shield of her Discipline, of her administra- 
tion, and of her ruling authorities hdng thrown around it, 
SHE IS TO ALL INIENTS AND PURPOSES A. PRO- 
SLAVERY CHURCH. Her Discipline is pro-slavery, 
since it provides by statutory enactment for the existence 
of slavery, and regulates and upholds it. Her administra- 
tion is pro-slavery, for it admits slave-holders to her com- 
munion, keeps them in her communion, and protects them 
in all tjie rights and privileges of membership, the occu- 
pancy of the sacred office not excepted. And her ruling 
authorities are pro-slavery. And what more is necessary 
to constitute her pro-slavery ? Surely nothing hut the 
name. We contend that the M. E. Church is a pro-slavery 
church, and it is vain for her to pretend to the contrary. 
As well might slie maintain tliaf the drunkard, the adul- 
terer, or the highway robber, is opposed to the practice hn 



18 

pursues, as that the church is opposed to slavery, while she 
continues to hold slaves. And as she h?rs no right to as- 
sume the character, so neither has she any right to bear 
the name of an anti-slaverv church. It is bv this hold dis- 
simulation— TEl^ SACRELIGIOUS FORGERY of the 
name of a class of men she despises in her heart — that she 
continues to keep up a reputatian for humanity^ and 
enables herself the more effectually to carry on her crusade 
against the anti slavery cause." Pages 52, 53. 

I beg the reader to remember that this is not the Ian-- 
guage of such infidels as Stephen S. Foster, who wrote 
*' The Brotherhood of Thieves," but that it is the language 
of Eli AS Bowen, a Doctor of Divinity, of the M. E. Church, 
one who is so warmly attached to the M. E. Church tliat 
he very tenderly and affectionately calls her his mother ! 
And such a mother I May heaven save the world from 
her nursing I 

A church " that practically sustains a crime of the 
deepest die," an unparalleled wickedness," the " absolute 
embodiment of crimes of all sorts and descriptions" — one 
that " is to all intents and purposes a pro-slavery church," 
and that deliberately, and '■ boldly dissimulates " her true 
character, and commits a " sacreligious forgery" that she 
may the more successfully uphold and defend man-stealing 
and men-thieves " in her crusade against the anti-slavery 
cause," is additionally guilty of a most blasphemous false* 
hood, when she calls herself the church of the kind, the 
good, the holy and ever-blessed Saviour 1 The audacity of 
the claim of the M. E. Church to be the Church of God, in 
view of the picture given by Dr. BoWEN of her complicity 
with '* the sum of all villainies," is scarcely surpassed by 
the brazened faced wicknedness of Slavery itself! A pro- 
slavery church is a combinadon of moral forces arrayed 
against the best interests of humanity ! A pro-slavery 



19 

church is the most formidable obstacle in the way of the 
ultimate triumphs of the Gospel of the blessed God! A 
pro-slavery church is the strongest arm of power on the 
side of the oppressors of this land ! A pro-slavery church 
is the altar of sacrifice upon which millions of Imman souls 
are immolated to the atrocious demon of American Slavery ! 
God is dishonored ! Christianity is burlesqued ! and com- 
mon sense is outraged, when we call a pro-slavery churcli 
the Churcli of the living God 1 How emphatically do the 
following Scriptures apply to the M. E. Church as por- 
trayed by Dr. Bowen : 

" There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst 
tlieroof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey ; they have 
devoured souls, — her priests have violated my law, and 
have profaned my holy things ; they have put no difference 
between the holy and profane, — I am profaned among 
tliem. Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves 
ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy soids, to 
get disJumest gain. Her prophets have daubed them with 
untempered mortar, seeing vanity, and demning lies unto 
thein. The people of the land have uSed oppression, and 
exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy." 
Ezel. xxii. 25-29. " Ye are of your father the devil, and 
the lusts of your father ye will do, he was a murderer from 
the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is 
no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of 
his own, for he is a liar, and the father of it." John viii. 
44.^ " YE AEE FORGERS OF LIES! Ye are all phy- 
sicians of no valuer Job xiii. 4. " Beware of false 
prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing, hut in- 
wardly they are ravening wolves^ Math. vii. 15. " Such 
are false prophets, deceitful loorkers., transforming them- 
selves into apostles of Christ. And no marvel, for Satan 
himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore 
it is no great thing, if his ministers be also transformed as 
ministers of rigliteousness, whose end sliall 1je according to 
their works." 2 Cor. xi. 13-15. "Be not ye therelore 



20 

partakers with tliem — have no fellowship with the unfruitful 
works of darkness, but rather reprove them." Ephes. v. 
7, 11. 

Here is another^ faithfully drawn picture of the present 
position of the M. E. Church from the pen of Dr. Bowen. 
The picture will speak for itself : 

" The slave, having been out-lawed by the State, and 
adjuo;ed to 'possess no rights' which a white man is bound 
to respect, turns to the church for sympathy and protection ; 
but is told that no protection can be afforded him by her. 
It is in vain he pleads the design of Christian discipline, 
and the duty of the church to exercise it for the redress of 
the aggrieved, and the punishment of the aggressor. Here, 
too, he finds himself an out-law ; the church having adopted 
the civil law as the rule of her conduct in relation to 
slavery, and consjnred loith the State to enslave hrm. 
The church, which was designed to be an asylum for the 
oppressed, has become an asylum for the oppressor ! The 
hunted, panting lamb is pursued by the devouring wolf 
even into the sheep-fold, and there's no protection ! He is 
hunted, and worried, and devoured under the very eye of 
the shepherd, and there's no protection ! Nay, the shep- 
herd himself becomes the devouring wolf, feeding and fat- 
ting and rioting upon the blood of his hopeless victim, and 
there's no protection ! And can it be that this devilish 
policy is upheld and practiced by the church — that she 
recognizes no right of the slave which she is bound to re- 
spect ? Aye, we are sorry to say it, but it is even so ! All 
this is sanctioned^ and practiced and haptized as an in- 
stittition of humanity and henevole7iGe, by the church.''^ 
Pages 35, 36. 

Let the reader remember that Dr. Bowen, who presents 
this horrible picture of the M. E. Church to the world, is 
a member of the Oneida Conference of the M. E. Church 
in good and regular standing. And let it also be remem- 
bered that he is a Doctor of Divinity of the M. E. Church 
and must therefore be supposed to have represented the 
true state of his church. Associations upholding and prac- 



21 

ticing *' this Devilish policy," as the Doctor terms it, are 
thus denounced in God's word : 

" Here this word, ye kine of Bashan, that are in the 
mountains of Samaria, which oppress the poor, and crush 
the needv^ which say to their tnasters, hring, and let us 
drink. The Lord hath sworn by his holiness, that lo, the 
day shall come upon you, that he will take you away with 
hooks, and your posterity with fish-hooks." Amos iv. 1, 2.. 
^^ ForasmMch, therefore, as your treading is upton the 
poor, and ye take from him burdens of xoheat : ye have 
built houses of hewn stones, but ye shall not dwell in them ; 
ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink 
wine of them. For I know your mighty sins ; they af- 
flict the just, they take a hrihe, and they turn a^ide the 
poor i7i the gate from their right. I hate, I despise your 
feasts-days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. 
Though ye offer me burnt offerings, and your peace offer- 
ings I will not accept them. Take thou away from me the 
noise of thy songs ; for I will not hear the melody of thy 
viols." Amos v. 11, 12, 21, 22, 23. 

How palpable, in their application, are these words to 
the M. E. Church, as portrayed above by Dr. Bowen? 
The people whom the prophet addressed were once God's 
people, but they degenerated into oppression and injustice ; 
and " forasmuch as their treading was upon the poor — and 
they turned aside the poor in the gate (the place where 
justice was administered) from their right ;" God rejected 
them and refused to acknowledge them in their most 
solemn religious services, and sent them, finally, into cap- 
tivity. If God be unchangeable, he must for the same 
reasons reject and disown the M. E. Church as his peo- 
ple, for she has ceased to be the asylum of the oppressed, 
and " has become the asylum of the oppressor." The slave 
flees in vain to her gates for protection, for she has " con- 
spired with the State to enslave him. He is hunted, and 
worried and devoured under the very eye of the shepherd. 



22 

Nay, the shepherd liimself becomes the devouring ■wolf, 
feeding, and fatting and rioting upon the blood of his 
hopeless victim !" 

" Pilate and Herod frieuds ! 

Chief priests and ruiers, as of old combined ! 
Just Gud and holy ! is that Church which lends 

Strength to the Spoiler, Thine ? 

Woe ! woe ! to all who grind 

Their brethren of a common Father down ! 

To all who plunder from the Immortal Mind 
Its bright and glorious crown ! 

AVoe to the Priesthood ! Woe 

To those whose hire is with the price of blood ! 
Perverting, durlcening, changing, as they go, 

The searching truths of God. 

Their glory and their might 

Shall perish ! And their names shall be 

Vile before all the people, in the light 
Of a world's Liberty." 

In the following extracts from Dr. Bowen's work, we 
are led to contemplate the motives influencing the M. E. 
Church in her present connection with Slavery. On pages 
141, 142. the Doctor says : 

" AVliat shall we say for the M. E. Church in relation 
to this awful subject ? Why, that she has gone in for 
slavery, ostensiMy for the legal relation, which q\\q jyretends 
to maintain for the good of the slave, hut practically^ and 
to allintejits and purposes for the WROhE SLAVE SYS- 
TEM, WITH ALL ITS ABOMINATIONS AND CRU- 
ELTIES. ' tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets 
of Askelon,' — that this church pract'iccdly endorses a des- 
potism, the vilest, the most cruel, and the most fiendish 
this side of hell, hy Teceimnn it into her hosom, and ex- 
tending over it the mgis of her administration omd 
discipline.''^ 

But says the Doctor, speaking of the legal relation of 
Slavery : 
" To cure or reform slavery, is to destroy it, by destroy- 



ing tlie legal relation on wliich it depends for its existence. 
This everybody knows. The slave-holder knows it. The 
church knows it. She knows that slavery and the legal 
relation stand or fall together ; and it is because of her 
interest in ' the peculiar institution,' and her determination 
to uphold it — cruelties and all — for the benefits she ex- 
pects to derive from it, that she hugs the legal i-elations 
with so much tenacity. ' It is by this craft she has her 
wealth,' and the love of gain having eaten out her spiritu- 
ality and her conscience, she must be expected to cry, 
' Great is Diana of the Ephesians.' " Page 110. 

Reader, look at this black picture ! It is drawn by a 
master hand — a Doctor of Divinity. This is a portrait of 
his own church — it is, therefore, reasonable to suppose that 
he would not represent her character worse than it really 
is. Look, I say, at this picture ! A church without spirit- 
uality ! — without a conscience ! These having been eaten 
out by the love of gain ! — a gain derived from '• practically 
endorsing a despotism, the vilest ! the most cruel ! and the 
most fiendish this side of hell ! ! A church " that goes in 
for the whole slave system with all its abominations and 
cruelties !" A church fixed in " her determination to up* 
hold this system — cruelties and all — for the benefit she 
expects to derive from it !" For " by this craft she has her 
wealth !" A church that does these things cannot be a 
Church of Christ ! Where, in all God's holy book, can 
one passage be found proving such a church to be the 
Church of God ? We search in vain for the text ! But 
every here and there, as we turn over the sacred pages, 
we meet with passages all aglow with the quenchless wrath 
of Jehovah, when a foul mass of moral corruption like the 
M. E. Church, as portrayed by Dr. Bowen, crawls into the 
light of Divine revelation. Here are a few such passages : 
" Thus saith the Holy One of Isreal, because ye despise this 
word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay 



24 

tkcreon. Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach 
ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose hreak- 
ing Cometh suddenly at an instants Is. xxx. 12, 13. 
" Thine eyes and thine heart are not hut for thy co'vet- 
ous7iess, and for to shed innocent blood, and for oppres- 
sion, and for violen ce to do it. Therefore thus saith the 
Lord, concerning Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Ju- 
dah. He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn 
and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem," Jer. xxii. 
17, 19. (That is outside of the pales of God's true church.) 
" Thou hast taken usury and increase, and thou has greedi- 
ly gained of thy neighbors by extortion, and hast forgotten 
me saith the Lord God. Behold therefore I ha'oe smitten 
mine haiid at thy dishonest gain which thou hast made. 
Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day thou wast 
created, till iniquity 'was found in thee. By the multi- 
tude of thy merchandise they have filled thee with violence, 
and thou has sinned. Therefore I will cast thee as profane 
out of the mountain of God, (that is out of the true Church 
of God,) and I will destroy thee." Ezel. xxviii. 15, 16. 

" Were they ashamed when they had committed abomi- 
nation f Nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could 
they blush (conscience being eaten out ;) therefore they 
shall fall among them that fall ; at the time I visit them 
they shall be cast down, saith the Lord." Jer. vi. 15. 

" Thus saith the Lord ; for three transgressions of Israel, 
and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof, 
because they sold the righteous for silver., and the poor 
for a pair of shoes. That pant after the dust of the earth 
on the head of the poor." Amos ii. 6, 7. " Know ye not 
that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God ? 
Be not deceived ; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor 
adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with 



25 

mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor 
revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the Kingdom of 
God." 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10. 

Not a sentence in all these fearful denunciations of God 
have the remotest application to the true Church of Christ. 
But they have a peculiar force and significancy when ap- 
plied to the M. E. Church as she is described by Dr. 
BowEN, and if the Doctor has given a true representation 
of the M. E. Church, she cannot be the Church of God. 
" Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of 
her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues." Rev. 
xviii. 4. 



Are there any hopes entertained by intelligent anti, 
slavery men in the M. E. Church that she will change her 
position on the question of Slavery ? If such hopes be en- 
tertained, and if there be sufficient grounds for such hopes, 
then whatever may be said of the back-slidden state of the 
M. E. Church on the great question of human freedom, she 
may be restored to her place and station in the Divine 
favor. Dr. Bowen is perhaps as well, if not better, quali- 
fied to give us the best possible information on this point. 
The following quotations are from his work : 

" Slavery was never so deeply rooted in the M. E. 
Church — never so bold and defiant — as at the present 
juncture. Slavery has taken hold of the vitals of the 
church ; — we have already reached a fearful crisis in the 
history of our church." Pages 160, 161. " We fear that 
the church will continue to practice an abomination in 
which she has hecoine too thoroughly steeped to have much 
sense of her wickedness^ or to forbear to justify it by such 
pretexts and apologies as shall be calculated to allay any 
qual'ms of consdence that still may linger in her hosom^ 
and ward off the blow of admonition and warning so justly 
aimed at her hy the friends of God and humanity P 



26 

Page 86. " The Jewish Church, abandoned of God, and 
the cup of her iniquity full, imagined herself invincihle : 
and Vvdien at the point of ruin, the wrath of an insulted 
Heaven lowering over her guilty head, and signs porten- 
tious of her approaching overthrow fast gathering around 
her ; she still felt secure and confidently looked for deliv- 
erance from the perils of a besieging army till her walls 
were battered down, lier temple was wrapped in flames, 
and the streets of her metropolis flowed in blood ! In like 
manner the Church of Rome limnmi lost all the nature and 
spirit of true religion, and degenerated into the character 
and condition of anti-Cinnst— the mother of harlots — the 
whore of Babylon — liad reached a point of advancevient 
which seemed to her to suggest and authorize the claim of 
infallibility! And what ma,rvel is it that the M. E. 
Church should claim to be anti-slavery, — at the very time 
she is yielding herself up to the control of the slave power. 
She has pursued her wicked oppressions of tlie black man 
till she has become too blind to see, and too hard to feel, 
or acknowledge the absurdity of claiming to be anti-slave- 
ry, while holding her fellow-creatures in bondage. In 
laboiMug to deceive others, she has been left, by an awful 
retribution, to deceive herself. How surely does she ' put 
light for darkness, and darkness for light ; calling evil 
good, and good evil.' And who wonders that a church 
that can cherish the blinding, corrupting, and damning sin 
of Slavery in her bosom, should come to substitute her 
growing numbers, her multiplied and costly temples, her 
popularity and influence for the genuine scriptural eviden- 
ces of evangelical piety ?" Pages 145, 146. " This dread- 
ful cancer (Slavery) was upon the face ecclesiastic at our 
first organization. And it has continued to spread and 
rage and rankle till it has eaten into her very vitals, dif- 
fusing its moral virus over the whole system ! But she 
heeds it not ! She seems not to be aware of her condition ! 
She has sinned so long and against so much light and 
knowledge, that she appears to be ' given over to hardness 
of heart, and to a reprobate mind ;' and to be realizing in 
the madness of her pro-slavery career, the fidfillrnent of 
that awful declaration of the apostle, — ' God shall send 
them strong delusions ^ that they might all he damned; 



27 

hecause they obeyed not the truth hut had pleasure in un- 
7nghteousness" Page 123. 

Thus the reader sees that even the Doctors of the M. E. 
Church, who have waited and watched for years with 
earnest solicitude to behold any signs of returning health, 
have been compelled at last to abandon all hope of her 
ever recovering. A church thus hopelessly given up by 
her best and wiset friends, as being so wedded to the abom- 
inable sin of slavery that she cannot be reformed, surely 
cannot be the Church of God ! A church " given over to 
a hardness of heart, and to a reprobate mind," — a church 
"realizing in the madness of her ^ro-slavery career ^^^ the 
dreadful malediction pronounced by the apostle, " God 
shall send them strong delusions that they might all be 
damned," cannot possibly be the Church of God ! God 
never thus deals with his genuine people. But he does 
thus deal with those who have become incorrigibly wicked." 
(See Thes. ii. 7, 13.) Think of it! A church upon whom 
God is sending strong delusions, that they might believe a 
lie ! — that they might be damned — still claiming to be the 
Church of Christ ! Can anything be more preposterous 
and absurd ? And yet such is the character and condition 
of the M. E. Church before God this day, if Dr. Bowen is 
to be believed. Then is it not plainly the duty of all in 
that church who love the Saviour, and who desire to obey 
his holy commandments, to withdraw from a chiu-ch thus 
corrupted in her moral character, and thus abandoned and 
cursed of God ? When is secession a duty, if not in this 
case? 



One more Bible view of this subject and we are done. 
By comparing the present position of the M. E. Church on 
the subject of Slavery, as described by Hosmer, De Yinne, 



28 

Long, Mattison, and Bowen, with the account given us in 
the Book of Revelation, of " The Mystery of Iniquity^'' 
the reader, no doubt will be struck with the remarkable 
similarity and sameness by which both pictures are dis- 
tinguished. By " -Babylon the great the mother of har- 
lots and abominations of the eaTth^'' spoken of in the 
17th and 18th chapters of Revelation, all commentators 
agree that we are to understand a corrupt and fallen 
church professing at the same time to be the Church of 
God. True, these commentators tell us we are to see in 
the Roman Catholic Church the living representation of 
Babylon the great that John describes. But they also tell 
us that as she is called " THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS," 
all those Protestant Churches who copy after her example 
in any of those particular sins which constitute her corrup- 
tion and prostitution, may be deservedly called her daugh- 
ters. Babylon's corruptions, and those of the M. E. Church 
are alike in many particulars. Instance the following : 

1. Babylon had become the habitation of Devils. Rev. 
xviii. 2. 

Doctor Bowen says : " The Demon of Slavery has at 
length become installed over us as the Genius Loci of our 
institutions and government ; AND ALL OUR ADMIN- 
ISTRATIONS AND MOVEMENTS IN GENERAL 
ARE NOW SUBJECT TO THE DOMINEERING 
SURVEILLANCE OF THIS RUTHLESS DIVINITY." 
(Intro., page 4.) Surely that place must be the habitation 
of devils where the Genius Loci (the God of the place) is 
a demon. 

2. Babylon had " become the hold of every foul spirit." 
Rev. xviii. 2. Dr. Bowen says : " The M. E. Church 
practically endorses a despotism, the vilest^ the most cruel, 

and the most fiendish this side of helV^ Page 142. Rev. J. 



29 

D. Long says : Slavery " has debauched the moral sentiment 
of the whole church." Page 31. The Black River Con- 
ference says : '' Our complicity with the vile abomination 
places us in the most fearful attitude before the God of 
holiness." 

3. Babylon, because of her costly temple and popularity, 
" glorified herself as a queen, and lived deliciously." Rev. 
xviii. 18. Dr. Bowen says of the M. E. Church : " Who 
wonders that a church that can cherish the blinding, cor- 
rupting, and damning sin of slavery in her bosom, should 
come to substitute her growing numbers, her multiplied 
and costly temples, and her popularity and influence for the 
genuine Scriptural evidence of evangelical piety." Page 
146. 

4. Bab3'lon, the Mystery of Iniquity, was given over to 
believe a lie that she might be damned. (See 2 Thes. ii. 
7-12.) Doctor Bowen says : The M. E. Church " is real- 
izing the fulfillment of ^that awful declaration of the apos- 
tle, God shall send them strong delusions that they may 
believe a lie ! that they all may be damned, because they 
obeyed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." 
Page 123. 

5. Babylon was guilty of the blood of the souls of men. 
Rev. xvii. 6, 18, 24. Rev. J. D. Long says : " What a 
fearful history has the M. E. Church to read to the world ! 
A history loritten in the blood and tears of oppressed thousands." 
Pages 30, 31. 

6. Babylon made merchandize of the bodies and souls of 
men. Rev. xviii. ^13. Rev. H. Mattison says : " We 
have now from ten to twenty thousand slave-holders in our 
churcli, who own, raise, buy and sell slaves, as suits their con- 
venience and interest." Page 84. Doctor ^Bowen says, 



30 

the M. E. Church "is to allintents and purposes a pro-slavery 
church." Pago 52. 

7. Of Babylon, it is said, " Babylon the great is fallen," 
in consequence of her corruption. Rev. xviii. 2. Rev. H. 
Mattison says : " So far as this subject (of Slavery) is 
concerned, the M. E. Church in America is a fallen church." 
Page 109. 

8. God's people were commanded to come out of Baby- 
lon because she had ceased to be the Church of God, in 
consequence of her corruption. Rev. xviii. 4. God's peo- 
ple who yet remain in the M. E. Church, are commanded 
to secede from her communion and fellowship because she 
lias ceased to be the Church of God, and has become a 
daughter of Babylon the great, by copying her example of 
tyranny and corruption. 



INFERENTIAL EEMARKS. 

The M. E. Churcli is either the Church of Christ, or she 
is not. If the facts alleged against her by Doctor Bowen 
that she has lost her spirituality and conscience through 
the love of gain ; " that she is to all intents and purposes 
a pro-slavery church ;" and by J. D. Long, that "the moral 
sentiment of the whole church has become debauched " — 
"that her history is written in the blood and tears of 
oppressed thousands ;" and by H. Mattison, that " the M. 
E. Church in America is a fallen church ;" and by Wm. 
HosMEE, that "her profession of Christianity avails her 
nothing, in view of the boundless robbery she has commit- 
ted in her apostacy from the holy principles of human free- 
dom ;" — if notwithstanding this entire and complete corrup- 
tion of the M. E. Church though her complicity with " the 
sum of all villainies," she is still to be regarded as the 
Church of God, then it is plain that those who are causing 
dissensions, ' divisions, and in many instances secessions 
from the M. E. Church by agitating the subject of Slavery 
in her bosom, are guilty of schism — a crime as plainly con. 
demned in the word of God as any other. (See 1 Cor. xii. 
25. Eoms. xvi. 17.) It will not relieve the case of these 
schismatics to say that Slavery is an intruder in the M. E . 
Church, because this statement is not true. Slavery was in 
the M. E. Church from the beginning. Dr. Bowen tells 
us that " this dreadful cancer was^upon the face ecclesiastic 
at our] first organization." (Page 123.) Genuine anti' 
slavery principles and measures are, however, the real in- 
truders in the M. E. Church, and are therefore the primary 
cause of divisions in the church ; and those who press such 



32 



principles and measures are consequently schismatics. This 
is true if the M. E. Church is the Church of God. j 

On the other hand, if the M. E. Church, in consequence 
of her corrupt relation to " the sum of all villainies," has 
ceased to be the Church of Christ, as I have, I think 
abundantly shown to be the true state of the case, then the 
anti-slavery men, who are still in the M. E. Church, ar^ 
committing sin by remaining there. (See following Scrip 
tures : 2 Cor. vi. 14-18. 2 John x. and Eev. sviii. 4. 
Taking which horn of the dilema they may. Anti-slaver; 
men in the M. E. Church are either guilty of schism, or o 
disobeying the Gospel doctrine of secession from the rank 
of God's enemies. 

Reader, farewell ! " Have no fellowship with the ub 
fruitful works of darkness." 



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